Quantum well devices have been the objects of intensive research during
the last two decades. Some of the devices have matured into commercially
useful products and form part of modern electronic circuits. Some others
require further dev- opment, but have the promise of being useful
commercially in the near future. Study of the devices is, therefore,
gradually becoming compulsory for electronics specialists. The
functioning of the devices, however, involve aspects of physics which
are not dealt with in the available text books on the physics of
semicond- tor devices. There is, therefore, a need for a book to cover
all these aspects at an introductory level. The present book has been
written with the aim of meeting this need. In fact, the book grew out of
introductory lectures given by the author to graduate students and
researchers interested in this rapidly developing area of electron
devices. The book covers the subjects of heterostructure growth
techniques, band-offset theory and experiments, electron states,
electron-photon interaction and related phenomena, electron transport
and the operation of electronic, opto-electronic and photonic quantum
well devices. The theory as well as the practical aspects of the devices
are discussed at length. The aim of the book is to provide a
comprehensive treatment of the physics underlying the various devices. A
reader after going through the book should find himself equipped to deal
with all kinds of quantum well devices.
